- [4:34 sec.] Reporter: Mr. Shevardnadze, could you we have prevented the war in Abkhazia?

Eduard Shevardnadze: Of course we could. However, we need to remember the times we were living in back then and what was going on in Georgia at the time. But [Tengiz] Kitovani, the defence minister, should never have sent troops to Sukhumi. That was our biggest mistake. [Absence of Will - Documentary Film]

Reading Eagle August 18, 1992

Reporter: What did the Abkhaz want?

[21:12 sec.] Georgi Anchabadze [Historian]: Perhaps they wanted complete independence from Georgia. They certainly didn’t want to join Russia again. Even now they don’t want that(*). They wanted more real political rights within Georgia.

Anchabadze: They offered three choces:

1. Georgia should become a federation with Abkhazia.2. Abkhazia should become a republic within Georgia.3. A two-chamber parliament should be set up.

[11.52 sec.] Gia Karkarashvili [General - Army Commander of the State Council of Georgia]: In the first place, the Ossetian war [1991-92] in Tskhinvali had just ended. The Georgia National Guard suffered heavy losses. We were exhausted. That’s why I thought it was reckless to go into Abkhazia. But I was told that the 13th-14th August was a good time to launch a military operation because the Russian Parliament was in recess. Unfortunately, we entered Abkhazia in a very disorganized way. We didn’t even have a specific goal [REMEMBER the claims about protect the railway] and we started looting villages along the way. As a result, in the space of a month we managed to make enemies of the entire local population, especially the Armenians.

Reporter: Did they turn against us just because of the way our troops behaved?

Karkarashvili: No, not just because of that. But we shouldn’t have allowed all that hatred to build up. We could have prevented it, but we didn’t. [Absence of Will - Documentary Film]